When one of my students held up a living, wiggling cricket for me to see, I did not shriek, jump back three feet, and yell at the top of my lungs, “Either KILL it, or take it OUTSIDE!!!” I am the adult, and I would never allow my childish fears to get in the way of my authority in the classroom!

At the same time, I did not find myself unable to kill a poor defenseless worm that I found in my apartment, and instead gently scoop it onto an old receipt to free it outside! Despite the fact that it won’t survive out there much longer anyway, due to the colder weather. If I do have an irrational fear of small wiggly creatures, (and I most certainly do not!), it would not be made even further irrational by discriminating against one form of “small wiggly” over another!

I recently bought a mop. I did not wait two weeks before actually using it. After mopping for the first time, I most certainly did not hang the mop upside down from my bathroom towel rod to dry. After letting it dry for a few days, I did not suddenly realize that it has a hole in the handle, and I could simply hang it from a hook, politely hidden in a closet, rather than taking up valuable towel rod space in the bathroom!

One of my favorite bloggers, MckMama, has a great feature called Not Me Monday. It’s always so entertaining, and I decided to give it a try today!

When I discovered that all of my cups were in the dishes a couple of weeks ago, I did not pour orange juice into a wine glass to drink for breakfast! I always do all my dishes immediately after using them, so I would never find that all the cups were dirty. And if I did find myself in this situation, I would absolutely drop everything to wash the dishes right then, rather than making such an absurd choice in order to avoid a household chore!

I was walking the dog one last time before bed, and in the dark, couldn’t find the…stuff. There was someone on one of the balconies nearby, but I’m not self-conscious! So I did not pretend to pick something up with the poop bag, and tie an empty poop bag shut, and walk over to the garbage and throw away an empty poop bag. Not me!!!

In September, I did not leave my travel coffee mug at school until it got moldy. Ew, I would never do such a thing! Then, I absolutely did not throw it away to avoid the gross chore of washing and thoroughly disinfecting it. Now, I have not ventured to every Wal-Mart in the city looking for a replacement, as they seem to have stopped carrying my beloved $4 travel mug with the stainless steel interior! (Mugs with stainless steel interiors don’t absorb the flavors, and also, there is some talk that putting hot food in plastic containers releases carcinogenic toxins. Mugs with stainless steel interiors also appear to run $15-$30 in most cases. I want a $4 mug like I found last time!)

As a result of the said mold incident…er, the denied mold incident…I have absolutely not stopped at Scooters or Starbucks on 90% of my workdays! I know exactly how much that is a waste of money, and I would never allow myself to become so addicted…er, fond of blended caramel lattes and caramel macchiatos!

All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full. To the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. --Ecclesiastes 1:7